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Height/Weight- The Steelers tend to avoid LB's that are too tall, or too heavy. In and around 6'0" appears to be the ideal height & 230-240lbs seems the Steelers target. This could be a leverage/agility reason, as the Steelers seem to be moving toward LB's that can cover TE's more during the Tomlin/Colbert era.

40 Yard- Between 4.6 & 4.7 seems to be about the right mark. Obviously, there are exceptions- generally lower, like Worilds who timed exceedingly well at 4.51.

Bench- The Steelers don't appear to have any strict guideline to the benchpress, but around 25 or so reps appears to be the norm. Obviously Spence finished well short of that, and got drafted anyway- but he claims to have been lifting with a damaged wrist, and normally puts up atound 20 reps. Might be worth disregarding this as a guide.

Vertical- vertical tests a players explosion, and it's no surprise that the Steelers value this highly. Look for players that jump 30" MINIMUM, and more towards the mid-30" range. Again, Jason Worilds tested out of this world.

Broad- Also tests a players explosion, and a broad jump of 9' & further is the area the Steelers tend to look.

20 Yard Shuttle- Again, another to watch. Tests a players agility- important if a LB is going to be dropped into coverage. The Steelers tend to look at players that test between 4.2 & 4.45 or so.

3 Cone- Like the Shuttle, this will test a players agility. Look for players that test between the 6.8 & 7 second range- or lower obviously.

Would you believe, under the Tomlin-Colbert regime, the Steelers have only ever drafted 1 safety? It's true- Ryan Mundy. This will make analysing Safeties a little difficult, so Chadman will add in Troy Polamalu's stats, as well as a couple of other Safeties we've seen in Pittsburgh in that time just to get a clearer picture on what the Steelers look for, athletically.

Obviously Troy was a workout freak, and it's unfair to include his numbers when looking for some kind of pattern. What we can work out from Mundy, Allen & Cromartie-Smith is that, normally, the Steelers look for-
Height/Weight- Around 6' to 6'2" and about 200lbs
40 Yard- 4.5 seems about right.
Bench- 20 Reps seems about right.
Vertical- Mid 30" area seems the likely target
20 Yard Shuttle- 4.3 to 4.5 looks the target range
3-Cone- It seems the Steelers will look as high as 7.2, but Mundy/Polamalu are well under 7.2. We'll say 7 as the cut-off.

So...what can we work out? Well, firstly- size. The first 2 CB's on the list were 5'10". Every other CB since then has been at the 6'0" range. The trend is, the Steelers are looking more & more for the taller CB- not too tall, mind you. Let's say that 6'0" and 6'1" are ideal. We'll accept 5'11".

Weight- that 190lbs range appears about right. We'll give them 5lbs either way as variance.

Speed- Ok, surprisingly- speed doesn't appear to be a huge factor. The mid 4.4's seems about right- not slow, but certainly not blazing either. We'll discount Joe Burnett's 4.58. It would seem logical that the Steelers wouldn't turn their nose up from faster than 4.4- but it doesn't seem to be a deciding factor either.

Vertical- Here we see a measurement that seems important to the Steelers. 33.5" from Keenan Lewis is the lowest recorded for a Steeler draft pick- we'll use that as our cut-off as every other jump was higher (sometimes significantly).

Broad- It would seem around 10' looks like the target.

3-Cone- Another stat that seems important. Crezdon Butler's 7.+ was the anomoly. It would seem sub-7.0 is the target.

20 Yard- When Keenan Lewis' 4.42 is your highest mark, we'll be safe in assuming this is an important target for the Steelers. We'll speculate that the 4.3 mark is about the target range.

Just a little caveat- Chadman cut & pasted this from last years version of this thread & included Terrence Frederick for the update. In hindsight, these numbers were very accurate in dictating the targets the Steelers looked for at CB. safe to use this method again!

In almost every case the combine or pro day results can be found for players on nfldraftscout.com. But over the years the few players with little or no numbers on them have been Steeler stand out players. Heath Miller, Casey Hampton, Polamalu 's page is still blank, even Ben's page is not complete. There have been a few others and I am not sure if this is still the case. I always scratched my head about this.

Anyway, Lacy will not do the combine. Maybe he will catch a cold at Bama's pro day.

In almost every case the combine or pro day results can be found for players on nfldraftscout.com. But over the years the few players with little or no numbers on them have been Steeler stand out players. Heath Miller, Casey Hampton, Polamalu 's page is still blank, even Ben's page is not complete. There have been a few others and I am not sure if this is still the case. I always scratched my head about this.

Anyway, Lacy will not do the combine. Maybe he will catch a cold at Bama's pro day.

This always struck me as a very odd coincidence.

To be honest- can't remember where it was that Chadman found Polamalu's numbers- it was cut and pasted from last years version of this same thread...

On Lacy, and any rookie that gets invited to the Combine for that matter... seems such a wasted opportunity to no take part in the drills, or worse- it looks like a player is trying to hide something.

Well Lacy suffered a slight hamstring injury while training very hard for the combine. He will possibly be able to do the Bama pro day on march 13.

I was just pointing out the odd coincidence that it seems that only the best Steeler players somehow have not done the combine [probably not 100% ready] for some reason or other. Even Ike Taylor [not invited] has a nearly blank page. I had a hard time finding him. I forgot his name was Ivan.

Probably just wishful thinking, but I was hoping somehow Lacy could join this group.